Hofstadter, Dennett - The Mind's I

An Epistemological Nightmare 425of his machine blew out! 'Then, for the first time, the machine started givingcontradictors information-not merely subtle paradoxes, but blatant contradictions.In particular. the ma machine one day claimed that the epistemologist believed acertain proposition and a few days later claimed he did not believe thatproposition. And to add insult t , 1111th,, the machine claimed that he had notchanged his belief in the last few days. This was enough to simply make himtotally distrust the machine. Now he is fit as a fiddle.FRANK This is certainly the most amazing thing I have ever heard! I guess the machinewas really dangerous and unreliable all along.DOCTOR: Oh, not at all: the machine used to be excellent before the epistemologist'sexperimental carelessness put it out of whack.FRANK: Well, surely when I knew it, it couldn't have been very reliable.DOCTOR: Not so, Frank, and this brings us to your problem. I know about your entireconversation with the epistemologist-it was all tape-recorded.FRANK: Then surely you realize the machine could not have been right when it deniedthat I believed the book was red.DOCTOR:: Why not?FRANK: Good God, do 1 have to go through all this nightmare again? I can understandthat a person can be wrong if he claims that a certain physical object has a certainproperty, but have you ever known a ,iugle case when a person can be mistakenwhen lie claims to have ()r- not have a certain sensation?DOCTOR: Why, certainly! I once knew a Christian Scientist who had a raging toothache;he was frantically groaning and moaning all over the place. When asked whethera dentist might not cure him, he replied that there was nothing to be cured. Thenhe was asked, "But do you not feel pain?" He replied, "No, I do not feel pain;nobody feels pain, there is no such thing as pain, pain is only an illusion." So hereis a case of a man who claimed not to feel pain, yet everyone present knewperfectly well that he did feel pain. I certainly don't believe he was lying, he wasjust simply mistaken.RANK: Well, all right, in a case like that. But how can one be mistaken if one asserts hisbelief about the color of a hook?DOCTOR: I can assure you that without access to any machine, if I asked someone whatcolor is this book. and he answered. "I believe it is